Vive La France
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote:
... pass laws allowing concealed carrying of weapons ...
Why concealed? Why not open carry? Seems like the more obvious your countermeasures, the less likely the villain would take a chance.
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
Concealed carry adds to the potential terrorist's uncertainty. He can never be sure whether an apparently unarmed person is, in fact, unarmed, so he must treat even unarmed people as if they were armed.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack. --Winston Churchill
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote:
If a terrorist knew that he would be shot before managing to do more than start his rampage, it might get him to think. He may be willing to die, but dying uselessly is another matter.
Western logic applied to not-so-western culture. In Israel, these random lunatic murderers have little to no chance of surviving an attack but the do it anyway. Your thoughts come from not being brought up with the concept of seeking martyrdom. By now, everyone's seen pictures of Palestinian/Iranian/etc. kids dressed up in suicide vests for various occasions. It's cultural and thus psychological. Add to that the concept that it may not be a knife or gun, but as the terrorists figured out, a motor vehicle - and if they pick a lonelier area (instead of crowded city streets) you'd find the run-down gun-carriers decomposing on their weapons. Rethink your strategy. The one and only defense is to attack those that send them so they fear for their own lives (the leaders never seem to martyr themselves). Drones. Assassins. Even the odd Cruise Missile (this will make them unwelcome in their neighborhood). For the terrorist 'leaders': bring the war home to them with a vengeance.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
I cannot believe I just up-voted that :). I would say that the strategy needs to be layered. Overwhelming evidence shows that when one motivated individual has a firearm and is willing to use it to stop a bad guy, the situation does not escalate. True, it is not fool proof, but I would rather have some sort of offensive chance rather than "shelter in place". Your comments as to the culture of violence are dead on. Until the world deals with this, there are generations of whanna-be martyrs being grown. Most people do not realize that up until just prior to 9/11, pilots were allowed to carry firearms into the cockpit. Think about where we would be today if the FAA had not proceeded in the direction of disarming.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I cannot believe I just up-voted that :). I would say that the strategy needs to be layered. Overwhelming evidence shows that when one motivated individual has a firearm and is willing to use it to stop a bad guy, the situation does not escalate. True, it is not fool proof, but I would rather have some sort of offensive chance rather than "shelter in place". Your comments as to the culture of violence are dead on. Until the world deals with this, there are generations of whanna-be martyrs being grown. Most people do not realize that up until just prior to 9/11, pilots were allowed to carry firearms into the cockpit. Think about where we would be today if the FAA had not proceeded in the direction of disarming.
Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
Now - for the overwhelming evidence. In Israel, where they still have a "martyr" on easily a weekly basis, they also have streets full of armed people - for example - the soldiers on leave must keep there weapon with them in-transit so it's available if they're to be mobilized without the detour back to their base. Also, no shortage of armed trained persons everywhere. While it is true that the 'martyr' gets their wish, they still get to do their attack. The guns don't stop them from acting, only stopping them from continuing to act. That, however, can be considered as confirmation of your hypothesis. Now - on the other hand - I do believe that most people (constitution not withstanding) are far too stupid to be trusted with a lethal weapon on the streets with other people. Only a 1% level of these idiots could cause impressive damage. Like big cars - they'll need to show off their prowess, their Macho (&/or female equivalent thereof). The idea works good on paper, but I believe if the experiment were done there would be a constant din of firearms - not all of it used to celebrate weddings (third-world innuendo intended). As for planes: at this point, I think allowing passengers to carry on their pocket knives would make sense. Pilots are behind a steel door. If there is trouble, now that we know it's likely to be motivated by suicide, having 200 knife wielding passengers would probably be able to reduce the carnage to just horrid levels. The risk to them is worth it if the alternative is being crashed into a building. Or - we can make everyone stay home and watch Lassie all day.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote:
If a terrorist knew that he would be shot before managing to do more than start his rampage, it might get him to think. He may be willing to die, but dying uselessly is another matter.
Western logic applied to not-so-western culture. In Israel, these random lunatic murderers have little to no chance of surviving an attack but the do it anyway. Your thoughts come from not being brought up with the concept of seeking martyrdom. By now, everyone's seen pictures of Palestinian/Iranian/etc. kids dressed up in suicide vests for various occasions. It's cultural and thus psychological. Add to that the concept that it may not be a knife or gun, but as the terrorists figured out, a motor vehicle - and if they pick a lonelier area (instead of crowded city streets) you'd find the run-down gun-carriers decomposing on their weapons. Rethink your strategy. The one and only defense is to attack those that send them so they fear for their own lives (the leaders never seem to martyr themselves). Drones. Assassins. Even the odd Cruise Missile (this will make them unwelcome in their neighborhood). For the terrorist 'leaders': bring the war home to them with a vengeance.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote:
If a terrorist knew that he would be shot before managing to do more than start his rampage, it might get him to think. He may be willing to die, but dying uselessly is another matter.
Western logic applied to not-so-western culture. In Israel, these random lunatic murderers have little to no chance of surviving an attack but the do it anyway. Your thoughts come from not being brought up with the concept of seeking martyrdom. By now, everyone's seen pictures of Palestinian/Iranian/etc. kids dressed up in suicide vests for various occasions. It's cultural and thus psychological. Add to that the concept that it may not be a knife or gun, but as the terrorists figured out, a motor vehicle - and if they pick a lonelier area (instead of crowded city streets) you'd find the run-down gun-carriers decomposing on their weapons. Rethink your strategy. The one and only defense is to attack those that send them so they fear for their own lives (the leaders never seem to martyr themselves). Drones. Assassins. Even the odd Cruise Missile (this will make them unwelcome in their neighborhood). For the terrorist 'leaders': bring the war home to them with a vengeance.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010